I’ll be teaching Cartooning and Comics classes this summer for kids and teens at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Here’s the info (with links for full details).

Comic Book Creation I
Summer Young Teens Classes Ages 12-15
Dates: June 18 – July 11(There will be no class on July 2 & 4.)
Days: Monday, Wednesday
Time: 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.The Comic Book Inside and Out
Summer Pre-College Classes Ages 15-18
Dates: June 18– July 11(There will be no class on July 2 & 4.)
Days: Monday, Wednesday
Time: 1:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m.

Instructor Jim Keefe

A graduate of the Kubert School, Jim Keefe started his career as the head colorist in the King Features Syndicate comic art department, coloring such world-renowned strips as Blondie, Beetle Bailey and Hagar the Horrible.

From 1996-2003 he was the writer and artist of Flash Gordon for King Features Syndicate – currently available online at FlashGordon.com.

Teaching and speaking engagements include the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, Malloy College and Hofstra’s UCCE Youth Programs in Long Island, New York, the University of Minnesota – and most recently as an Adjunct Teacher at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

Keefe currently is the artist of the Sally Forth comic strip, written by Francesco Marciuliano. Sally Forth is syndicated worldwide by King Features and appears in nearly 700 newspapers.

And for those interested, there’s also a follow-up class to Comic Book Creation I.

Bud Grace:‘The reason is because we tried a promotion here in the States, and we thought that by changing name we might pick up some papers. That didn’t work, so now I’m going to change my name to Bill Watterson.”

From that same Q&A, when asked if there was any Robert Crumb influence in his drawing style, Bud responded,

“I started drawing in an underground style, originally. While I can’t draw nearly as well as Robert Crumb, I’m not surprised you can see the influence. I was also influenced by underground cartoonist Kim Deitch.”

In 1989 Bud Grace received the the Adamson Award presented by the Swedish Academy of Comic Art as Best International Comic-Strip Cartoonist – and in 1993 he won the National Cartoonist Society’s Reuben Award for Best Newspaper Strip.

Bud Grace Fun Fact:

•Born in 1944, Bud Grace received a doctorate in physics from Florida State University before turning to cartooning.

From the National Cartoonist Society member album.

I was lucky enough to meet Bud Grace when I worked at King Features on staff as the colorist in the Comic Art Department. Cartoonists that didn’t come in regularly to drop stuff off because they didn’t live near New York (we’re talkin’ pre-internet here) we’d get the chance to see if they stopped in before the annual King Features Christmas party.

Bud always reminded me of Groucho Marx when I’d see him at King. If you ever saw a Marx Brothers film, the energy would always pick up a notch when Groucho entered a scene. It was the same with Bud.

When you worked in the Comic Art department at King you got to see the originals before they saw print. Here’s an example of an Ernie strip circa 1995 pre-edit.

Bud of course knew that the above strip wouldn’t make it through editorial without a change to the language in the last panel. That he sent it in anyway was what made him a favorite in the Comic Art Department up at King.

Here’s another example from 1995 where editorial actually made Bud change the drawing.

And so with the final strip on February 3, 2018, we bid adieu to the Piranha Club.

Fortunately we don’t have to say adieu to Bud Grace. You can still check in on Bud at BudGrace.com. And I’d make sure to check if I were you as info on upcoming book collections will be forthcoming.

From Bud’s blog – February 3, 2018…

“Speaking of books, the publisher has been screwing around like crazy. The only book available right now is my Guess who Got Lucky collection of magazine cartoons. I’ll try to get things straightened out this week. Sorry.

Whatever you do, don’t buy any books from scalpers. A reader said he saw one for sale on Amazon for 90 bucks. Geeze!”